How do you solve 4(x+2)=16 in distributive property

Answer 1

distribute the 4 over x and over 2

to get

4x+8 = 16

4x = 8

x = 2

You could have just divided by 4 initially to

get x+2 = 16/4 = 4

x =4-2 = 2

but that doesn't involve the distributive property. but it does check your answer, as you should get the same solution if you did it correctly (although it's possible to do it incorrectly twice and get the same answer, but that probability is much lower)